NPF Avatars IV, Chapter IV: The Teeth in the Walls

[Arhra]

Arhra in the meantime been thawing out or whatever you called slowly turning back from near total petrification. Unfortunately, the return of flesh brought to Arhra's attention a problem which stoniness had helped numb. She'd been stabbed multiple times.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! OW! I am bleeding! My precious blood! These wounds require elixir!"

Now, while Arhra possessed a degree of good old fashoned, troll flavoured regeneration, that would take time to close up the cuts. And they would hurt and bleed until that happened. She had a craving for the soothing balm of a healing potion. While she knew about the dangers of dark world of addiction an adventurer could fall into, with her wounds becoming less stony and thus more bleedy by the second, she didn't care.

Her first stop was getting the slain dryad off her arm and checking for items. Arhra knew all about monsters' tendencies to be inexplicably carrying stuff. One popular theory said it was spontaneously generated upon their death. Hoping for some hi-potion (Arhra had no idea why a drugged potion was more effective than a regular potion and frankly had no desire to know), she clumsily bent over and rummaged through the dryad's bark clothing.

Finding no healing items, Arhra pocketed the rest and brainstormed another idea. Of course! She'd stolen the dryad's abilities hadn't she? She could just prance into a tree and heal within seconds.

One mild concussion later, Arhra was reminded that she only learnt some abilities. It seemed she'd have to resort to Plan Q - go for help.

Movements slowly becoming less ponderous, Arhra limped towards where the others. That really didn't make much sense considering Arhra's legs were fine. Pale face looking haggard, Arhra kept her arms wrapped tightly to her chest, trying to reduce blood loss through the two deep cuts on her front. There was little she could do about the back wound though. Still, if she looked pitiful enough, she was sure to get some healing soon. Calling out to the others weakly as inhaling too deeply hurt, she said, "How are you guys? I'm feeling a little impaled myself."

[Flarecobra]

"Come on Skyshot, let's get to healing everyone." I said, as I started casting Cure-2 on Arhra.

[Tarrin]

"Okay that was different" Tarrin said as he got up off the ground, The two claw cuts bleeding a little, Looking around he saw that the rest of the NPFer's were getting fixed or looting the bodies of the enemy.
"You know in my day Dryads were much much tougher and spat acid" The spirit chimed in
"Oh nick off " was Tarrins curt reply "Umm Could i get a minor heal when you get time" Tarrin called to Flarecobra

[Skyshot]

Skyshot rubbed a hand over his stony chest.

"Mine's not dead. Oh well."

He was lucky all the same. The Sanctuary spell had prevented the gashes from being deadly, and he wasn't nearly as petrified as the others around him. In spite of that, he only felt irritated it had done nothing for his sore wrist. Apparently it wasn't a sprain, but stupidly swinging the staff one-handed like that wasn't to thank.Come on Skyshot, let's get to healing everyone."Ugh. I'm starting to think in sailorese over here. I'm not sure how much I can heal now. Arhra, I propose camping out the night here, with a constant guard. We're gonna need it." He noticed movement over in the trees. Another dryad. "There'th one over there!" he whispered, making use of a trick he picked up reading The Last Battle well before joining the Thieves' Guild. "Thomeone kill it, or carry me there tho I can kill it."

[Mauve Mage]

(OOC: So poor Newb doesn't end up dead in the first temple. )

Mauve heard Newb moan out in response to her question if everyone was okay.

"I'll take that as a no, then," she said. Since Raiden wasn't around at the moment, and Twiddy hadn't said anything since the sphinx incident, Mauve figured she was the resident electricity-weilder.

"Thundaga!" she commanded, calling down a small volley of lightning bolts upon the unconscious Newb.


As she finished this, she heard the still-slightly-petrified Skyshot mention the surviving dryads. Despite the ego boost from Garud and Fenris calling her "savior" and "Awesome of Awesomeness" and all that, she knew she wasn't "Immortal of Immortality." Still, her friends were in danger. As such, she did what any self-respecting magic-weilder would do: She slunk into the center of the group of NPFers and pretended not to hear Skyshot, instead focusing on healing the others and replenishing her own magic reserves, hoping someone else would rise to the challenge instead.

[Mesden]

"DAMNIT!" came a definitely irate voice. When anyone cared to look towards the sound, they saw an injured and apparently annoyed Goddess.

She returned 'their' glances with a...well, let's call it a "^^;;;" sort of look.

"A-heh. Kind of figured I couldn't stay in my body if it got changed...Stupid warped petrification abilities that apparently have nothing to do with the poor beast's soul. Silly estimation on my part, eh?

After giving a shrug to, well, being turned into a statue and being removed from her own body, she clapped her hands together. A low hum follwed a thing, weak light that encompassed the whole of her hands, the deep crimson metal now luminating the faint, baby blue.

With a slight keel over and a placement of her hands on both of the deep, but oddly bloodless, wounds, the tissue of the body began to reweave itself, stitching back the flesh and clothing that once belonged there.

"Annnnd, there we go!"

[FenrisWolf]

Fenris eyed the dryad in the trees. He really didn't want to fight one again... but he did agree with needing to camp out for a night, albeit for personal reasons involving annoying voices in his head.

"I agree with Skyshot. We should camp out here tonight. I need to pull myself together mentally, y'know? Also, Skyshot, I'd carry you over there to kill it, but I don't want to get close to the damn thing."

[GARUD]

"I'll do it. Anyone want to come with me?"

"I will!"

"Okaaaay... anyone except Thorque. C'mon, I'm almost fully unpetrified."

Garud unwound the blades of Chaos and walked with petrified legs toward the sound. He just hoped the joints would be unstoned so he could get more movement accessibility soon.

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenix was happily licking her vibrosword clean in it's "Off" mode while the rest of the group were healing each other. She stood far enough away from the evil positive-energy magic, and possibly not far enough away for a little murmur of "Mmmm... Sappy." escape through the stone foliage. Composing herself after feeding, Phoenix walked back toward the rest of the NPF wearing a smile.

"So! What's next? Camping out in the middle of hell? Sounds great!" she clapped excitedly and shot everyone a thumbs up, "I'll keep watch tonight, since you all need sleep, and uh... Yeah." she tapped her eyes, "Darkvision 60."

[Skyshot]

Skyshot cupped his hands in front of his eyes.

"My infravision's still running. I guess I should keep watch for a while too. Garud, I get the impression Thorque's strong enough to carry me over there. Come on, my levitation spell stopped working when my feet were petrified." Skyshot murmured "Cure light," and sighed as the pain left his wrist. He picked up Nightstorm from where Fenris had set it down. "Anyone else?"

[Steel Shadow]

"It's only one of them. Shouldn't be a probem. I'll help though, just in case" Steel said, hopeing to clear any debts he may have aquired quickly. Then he realised what he'd just said.
"Oh man, thats almost as bad as saying it can't get any worse, or at least it's not raining." There was a small thunderclap and a brief sound of rain hitting the dome above, but lacking any sort of humerous or dramatic anchor the storm quickly disapeared.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros groggily walked into the camp. He'd been correct in his placement, though only partially. He'd passed out instantaneously as the petrification hit his neck, but before it could kill him the soft did it's thing, saving him.

He'd lain there for awhile, during which his arm softened due to the Dryad's demise, and then Pyros woke up, feeling like he could probably use a few more hours of sleep. It was probably thanks to the corroding essence that permeated this dungeon and was attacking the seal.

"Did one of you say that you should spend the night here? I must politely disagree. This place is death, and that which warped those dryads and these trees would only warp you the same as you rested. The less time spent in this dungeon, the better."

[Flarecobra]

"Here. I'll just Mega-Flare it." I said, and started to charge up. "Get clear!" I called out to them, and launched it at the dryad's hiding place. If the blast didn't kill it, the debris and falling tree will, hopefully.

[Tarrin]

"Mega...what" Tarrin was confused there wasn't even a flare gun in her hand what.... The Mega flare started at that point, "Oh ...Mega flare"

((OOC: I take it that you actually started the Mf Flare?))

[Flarecobra]

(Yep. It took about 20 seconds to charge up, and launch.)

The blast from the Mega flare pushed me back a bit, as the shot shattered the stone tree, causing it to topple over, shredding branches all over as it fell. "Should be dead now. Or at least scared shitless." I said.

[PyrosNine]

After seeing the display of megaflare, Pyros sighed. "Shouldn't you have waited to use such a technique for the no doubt stronger, more wicked things still to come instead of waisting it on but one Dryad?"

Pyros swooped over to the remains and prodded it. "Well then, at least you can more than just bet it's dead."

After making sure that the dryad's remains were no longer remaining, he flew back over to the group.

"To not seem entirely the spoil of sports, I will say it is impressive to see someone not a dragon of Bahamut's level use an attack like that."

[Flarecobra]

"It's not as powerful as his. It's about twice as powerful as the Flare spell. Besides, if I wanted wide-scale distruction, I'd use my Firestorm attack or if I just wanted to put in everything I had, I'd be in the air, and using Terra-Flare. And if I have to use THAT, then we're just fucked." I said.

[FenrisWolf]

"It's not as powerful as his. It's about twice as powerful as the Flare spell. Besides, if I wanted wide-scale distruction, I'd use my Firestorm attack or if I just wanted to put in everything I had, I'd be in the air, and using Terra-Flare. And if I have to use THAT, then we're just fucked." I said.
"Well, that is the norm, but we usually pull through, somehow."

Fenris blinked a couple times. He was getting tired, physically and mentally, and he was also feeling emotionally drained. He blinked some more.

[Inbred Chocobo]

"Okay, so now that the dryad has been taken care of, shall we move on?" IC said, simply being quiet all the way until now. "If you haven't noticed we are still in the forest, and we are not sure the dryads were alone in here." IC kept going on, getting sick of being here.

[PhoenixFlame]

"I second IC's examination of the situation." Phoenix added, pointing at IC. "After all, without copious amounts of powerful firearms supplemented by several auto-turrets and motion sensors, I don't think we should even THINK about sleeping here."

"Besides, we have work to do. Time is ticking before that invisible moon, or whatever the heck it is smashes into the planet and ends our miserable little lives." she continued, with a far more serious, less cheery tone.

[Skyshot]

Time is ticking before that invisible moon, or whatever the heck it is smashes into the planet and ends our miserable little lives."What are you talking about?" Skyshot asked. "Those things never actually hit, at least until we're finished or almost finished with our quest. We have essentially unlimited time on our hands. Come on, I know some guys who're dealing with an ancient evil long sealed in the center of the earth as we speak. This is standard fare.

"And for those asking us to move on, I would like to point out that some of us are a little drained at the moment, and would like an opportunity to recuperate. We have enough people that a few guards on constant watch should keep us safe.

"If you're too afraid to sleep in this forest, we could leave the temple and camp out there. Show of hands. Who is not going any deeper into this dirtshack until they can actually handle that golem thing?" Skyshot raised his hand pointedly.

OOC: Arhra, I'm leaving the current status of my petrification as influenced by Flare's spell up to you.

[FenrisWolf]

Fenris did too, although he felt kinda silly doing it.

"I'm fuggin' exhausted. It is not the funnest experience being on the brink of death, healed, and then snapping your arm into two pieces, and having it put back together."

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenix sighed, "However Skyshot, whenever the player character, IE, you, talk to, or are talked to by members of your party, INCLUDING playable characters in your party, they will of course bemoan the wasting of time and the inevitable destruction of the world, even if it isn't going to happen until the end of our quest." she explained.

"Now, common to all first person shooters..." Phoenix pulled out her gun and waved it around, "It's natural that there are several medkits, stimpacks, ammunition and armor just around the corner after any powerful monster attacks, so..."

She paused, "Bleh. Who am I kidding. Camp wherever you want."

[Mauve Mage]

"And... Uh... Is Rhiya okay?" Mauve asked, looking worriedly back over at the dragon. "I threw her a Soft a while ago, but it didn't seem to work. We should probably help her. Because if she wakes up on her own and mistakenly thinks that we abandoned her, she's likely to start feasting upon our flesh. And I for one don't like that thought, what with my pesky problem of mortality and all that rubbish."

[Arhra]

OOC: Yes, it should help it subside. The general intent was that status curing effects would be less effective during the timeframe of a battle to keep things a bit more interesting. It wears off naturally over time if you're not fully petrified anyway.

Feeling her wounds close Arhra dragged Flare into an embrace, declaring the dragoon to be her "favourite person of the day". A thanks to her healer out of the way, Arhra set about a personal status evaluation.

The wounds were still knitting together, but they should be fully restored very quickly. On the surface, there wasn't even a mark. A pity white magic didn't work on clothes. Still, the three main tears her shirt had picked up weren't too bad - more than enough to cover the essentials. The blood was a problem though. Arhra made a mental note to have everyone visit the Water Temple next. She could wash it off there.

Rummaging around in her pockets, she was reminded of something else, "Oh, right. I found something else the dryads were carrying." She pulled out a bottle of something. It was a clear yellow hue, reminscent of apple juice or other, more unmentionable, fluids, "Turns out the dryads were on something. It's Ent Cider. I have no idea where the stuff comes from, but it might come in handy. Should be a few bottles around."

"Anyway, I think we should head deeper in. Staying here really isn't an option and I don't think the Sphinx will be very happy to see us again. Especially you." Arhra added, pointing at Skyshot. "Further in though, the closer we are to danger, the safer we'll be."

"We can rest when we're dead. Onwards I say!" And then Arhra started walking further into the temple, headed for the other side of the grove chamber.

[Flarecobra]

I blushed a deep red when I was hugged. Thankfully my leg was returning to normal. Then she noticed the bottle. "Ah. I've had that stuff before. It's bad for just about anyone that isn't plant. Makes them homocidal. Caused me to go berserk once in the chat area. Anyway, if you want, I can check out the area ahead. I'm sure if I go slimegirl, I can get around without drawing attention to us, if you want. Though I will have to ask for a bit of privicy when I change." I said.

[Skyshot]

Skyshot sighed and massaged his feet. Oddly enough, they were getting a bit softer.

"Hey, Flare, if you wait a bit, I could help you out there. Thiefy sneakery and all that."

[Bailey]

"I'm, well, kinda plant. Not totally, but sorta. Think this stuff would be safe for me?" Syttulg said, picking up a bottle.

[Premonitions]

Premonitions released the pause and their attacks continued.. The dryads hand jutted out from his back and through his stomach. Silent words escaped from his lips, repeated in a desperate chant. They sounded almost like.."please work.pleasework.pleasework" The drayad cackled "Soo human.. how does it feel?" the sound of swords clashing, Premo scowled through his pain. " Don't ever call me that. How does it feel? well..." he swung up his hand, revealing his laser pistol. He began firing rapidly, jackhammering the belly of the creature. A large hole opened.. prem pulled out an explosive and rammed it into the hole "You should be asking Raiden.." He pushed of with a loud slush of tearing flesh as the dryad exploded. He stumbled over to the assembled NPfers "Hey! I.." N He twitched and heaved nd pitched over *WHUMP!*

[Flarecobra]

"Well, Skyshot, I doubt you can squeeze through cracks in walls, and be able to just absorb phyiscal hits in case the shit hits the fan like I can when I'm slimegirl." I said, looking at him.

[Skyshot]

"No, but I am incredibly skilled at avoiding detection, especially compared to a large mass of slime moving through an area. And why would I need to squeeze through cracks? We want to find the actual path.

"Moreover, I have high evasion, I can parry, my Sanctuary's still up, and I can run like...well, something that can run amusingly fast, except in my case as a form of retreat.

"Besides, this way we can watch each other's back, and flank anything overly aggressive in there."

[Tarrin]

Tarrin looked from the ground to the two arguing NPFers, "Umm guys" tarrin stepped between the two and pointed at the still lying body of Premo,
"Do you think he might need some help?"

[Flarecobra]

"Fine." I said, as I used Cure-2 on him.

[Darth SS]

Darth was quite happily hopping behind Arhra. To anyone within about a meter radius of him, they would hear his whimsical theme music, which obviously represented how Darth perceived the situation. Currently it was the theme from "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends," in all its psychadelic ragtime glory.

"I feel like singing a song....Left Foot, Right Foot...Left Foot, Right Foot...Left Foot, Right Foot..."

[Toastburner B]

It had been a long walk from the nearest spawn point...especially for the stumpy little legs of TB's current form. Of course, TB was not in too much of hurry, as he tended to not survive very long in the form that Fate had decided he should respawn in. Plodding slowly along, being careful to any bits and pieces of dryad (for all he knew, they could still turn you to stone, even after death). Finally, he reached the point where the rest of the group was resting.

"You would not believe how far away the nearest save point is, dood!" TB squeaked, and then immedately put his fins over his beak. The key to survival as a prinny was to keep a low profile...and that meant to keep quite.

[Darth SS]

Darth jumped into the air and clapped his hands. The prinny! The wonderful prinny. His excitement could barely be contained.

"Toast, we are going to have some good times."

[Flarecobra]

Just then, a mound of slime in the shape of a hand landed on darth's shoulder. "Leave him alone. From what I've heard, his Kamakaze attack is his strongest, so it'll be best to leave him alone until needed." I said, coming around a tree. I had shifted to slime form, and my armor and clothes with Dragonsbane for now. "Come on Skyshot." I said, looking at him.

[Bailey]

Syttulg glanced over.

"A prinny! Excellent! Just what I was looking for."

He darted over, and tried to strap TB to his back.

[PyrosNine]

"Save point? I'm to assume this world is almost one with the timewasting games of my own world?" Pyros mumbled to himself as he watched the newcomer with interest.

Putting his "my dimension's cleaner and all around better than this heathenous one" mindset to the side for now, Pyros paid closer attention to the Prinny.

Normally, when the residents of NPF viewed Toastburner Prinnies, they felt either 2 things:

1.: It's killin time!
2: Must...avoid...hugging it!

Most Forumites are too busy with the first one to get around to the second one, though some even go so far as to want to hug Toasty to death. With the exception of Asheth and Ecurt, who either had a Prinny to take care of*, or had spent time in hell learning what it was like**.

However, this Pyros is reknowned for being devoid of killing intent whatsoever, so he skipped the first one easy. So he immediately went into the second phase. But then, his own added nature of protecting small and helpless things also sprang into action, and before even he knew it, Pyros had him in his arm.

"Your Bizarre cuddly form, this place is too dangerous for it! So, I, Pyros of the nine senses, Shall protect thee from all who would do you harm!"

Immediately upon saying that, Pyros immediately flew a good number of feet away from the other forumites, sensing their inner hostile intent.

[Skyshot]

Come on Skyshot."Right-o." Skyshot put Nightstorm on his back, dropped his arms to his side, and closed his eyes. He took a moment to analyze his entire pose, determine where every inch of his body was, and stop all unnecessary motions.

After a moment, he opened his eyes.

"See you guys later." He snuck off from the group, intent on not making a sound as he went through the exit, pausing to analyze what lay beyond.

[Flarecobra]

The door on the far side was partly blasted open by a rocket that went errant during the fight, so it was easy to get past. I stuck to the ceiling, noting that there was a great many roots or root-like designs.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

After finally un-stonifying, Rhiya resumed her winged-human form grouchily, glaring at anybody around her. She was not in a good mood after the initial turning-to-stone, and after recovering her fleshiness only to discover the rest of the people killed more than she did, the mere thought of her not the one doing any mass traumatizing damage made her narked. Right now, the RFS hovered dangerously over the 90-95 region, but was stable so far. One could see, though, that even the slightest bit of provocation was enough to send her over the top.

So she waited and fumed.

[Arhra]

And so it was that Skyshot and Flare crept deeper into the temple, most of the others trailing some distance behind them. They were crafty and moved lightly in the still breeze. The weighty presence of the mass of stone above the corridors was oppressive, along with the heavy smell of soil. It began to split into a number of interweaving passages, getting tighter and narrower. None of them could see the things moving inside the walls; silent, souless and barely alive. The tunneling way exuded age, old stone painstaking fitted together into carvings, suggestive of mountains, coiling vines and other such earthy iconography. It was like no foot had walked these forgotten halls for centuries.

"Hurry up you guys!" Arhra's voiced bounced off the ancient walls from further ahead, reverberating in the silence. "You'll get left behind."

Of course, there's little point in trying to scout ahead if someone else is already travelling before you, moving along less cautiously and therefore faster. As the group began to join up and thus assume some coherency in the mazy confines, Arhra's voice came from ahead once more.

"Agh! Teeth!"

The wall had moved, the stone bulging out like a thousand year's of slow sagging in a moment. The bulge split, peeling back like lips and long, crystalline teeth glinted dimly in the half-light. Then with a horrendous grinding sound they bit at Arhra, seeking to devour her.

Almost loosing an arm, blundered away. With the corridors having grown steadily smaller, she hit the other wall. Relaising that, she leapt off like she'd been stung. Standing as close to the middle of the corridor as it was humanly possible to determine, Arhra noticed that there were ripples in the walls, the ceilings and even the floor - whatever the weird mouths were approaching the stone's surface to attack. There were lots of them, before and behind her. They were coming up all around the NPF'ers. Fixing her eyes on the path ahead, Arhra ran.

OOC: Well, you can all decide what your exact positioning is. As these are relatively simple enemies and are difficult, if not impossible to kill, I'm not bothering with a full profile. There's a number of them and the scene as a whole is Easy As Pie - not too difficult. They bite people.

[Flarecobra]

I felt pinpicks all along my body, and barely dropped before the ceiling tried to take a bite out of me, and splattered on the floor below me. "Eat this!" I said, creating a beam of fire that lanced right into the creature's mouth.

[Skyshot]

Skyshot was glad for Arhra's cacophony, since it provided a further distraction from himself. He moved along the tunnel, noticing minimal life, but a lot of odd ripples in the wall.

Hmm, that's odd.

Hey, is that stone moving? Haven't seen that before.

Huh, it's moving right along the ripple. I wonder if that's some kind of...crack...

Teeth?

Uh oh.

He quickly scanned the tunnels ahead. Ripples were all over. Fortunately, he had just the thing for this.

"Levitate." He had lost it when his feet were petrified, but now he was able to hover-walk down the middle of the tunnel amidst the more panicky, clamoring team members. "Hey, I know, why don't we camp out here?" he asked, careful to avoid the wall-bound and ceiling-bound mouths.

[Flarecobra]

"Skyshot, now is NOT the time!" I said, shooting another blast of Fire at one that was in the floor. Being in slimegirl form, I had a little bit of an advantage since I was semiliquid, allowing me to slide around the mouths, and give them a blast of fire whenever one got too close, or was on the floor.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros held the prinny that was Toastburner up. "Careful here. I have heard of these beasts before. Actually, it was from a terrible Shannara book I read, but I've heard of them just the same."

It was too dangerous to have his wings out, so he promptly returned them into the folds of his clothes, where they seemed to dissappear. Then, with careful steps, he made his way forward, eyeing the ground, the walls, and the ceiling.

He was behind the others, so he presumed there to be not too many teeth on the ground, lest he hear a scream up ahead. But he did hear fire spells.

"Whomever up aheads casting, save your magic! They take no damage or threat from it!" Pyros called out again.

Pyros was aware he was handing out advice alot more than usual. It was probably because of his years of experience, and he had deemed them all a bit wet behind the years. Perhaps he may have misjudged them at a glance...

Or it could be that small relation to the Queen of the Fairies his father told him about. If there was one thing he knew about speech-capable fairies, if they thought they had something important to say, they'd say it. Alot.

Oh well. At least he wasn't shouting "Hey!" or "LISTEN!" out into the air.

[Tarrin]

"I've heard the hill had eyes, But the walls have teeth...C'mon" Tarrin was begining see why alot of the NPFers were either gods or people with multiple forms, If this kept up someone would die....again.

Jumping from one non shimmering part of the floor to the next Tarrin started evading the gnashing maws, Then an idea came to him, Spirit meld.
Rolling into an armored ball Tarrin started rolling out of the hall, The armadillo form having some advantages over hopping from foot to foot,

[FenrisWolf]

Fenris looked with disdain at the people who looked at Toasburner and immediately went "Oooh, Bomb!"

That's when he noticed the teeth were coming at him. He jumped over them, and longed for the jumpjets of the RoboHobo. Being unable to fly, he did the closest alternative to it, he leaped, never staying on the ground for more than a fraction of a second.

'This is almost too easy.'

'Don't get too cocky, Fenris.'

'Good point.'

[Toastburner B]

"Err..thanks, dood." TB muttered to Pyros, unable to form a sentence more complex than that.

Not that you could blame him...after all, Pyros threatened to drop giant hampster balls on TB the next time he tried crossing the street...or something like that. As such, Toast found himself hardly trusting of the being carrying him at this moment.

...Mostly because being carried as a prinny ultimately lead to being thrown as a prinny.

However, for the time being, Toastburner figured he was safe enough.

[PyrosNine]

"I somehow sense that for some reason or another, you distrust me?" Pyros asked, stepping away from one of the munching mouths, feeling hot, earthy breath in his face.

"May I ask, why?"

[Toastburner B]

Toastburner looked puzzled at Pyros. "Err...are you serious, dood? You don't remember the firebomb letter? Playing 'Let's See What TB Respawns As Next' with Raiden? Not too long ago, you warned me to look up before I cross the street, because you'd be dropping giant hampster balls on me....dood."

[PyrosNine]

"Hmm? Who is this 'Raiden' person you speak of? Is he yet another evil and twisted creature that plagues this world, much like...him?" Pyros asked, pointing ahead to Dragonsbane.

"If this 'Raiden' is a threat to you, I shall protect you from him as well, I swear by my sword!"

[GARUD]

"Hmm? Who is this 'Raiden' person you speak of? Is he yet another evil and twisted creature that plagues this world, much like...him?" Pyros asked, pointing ahead to Dragonsbane.

"If this 'Raiden' is a threat to you, I shall protect you from him as well, I swear by my sword!"

"Wait, you don't know who Raiden is?"

An evil thought came into Garud's mind. A very evil thought.

"Okay, let me refresh your memory Pyros. Raiden is your brother. Raiden's his name, but he likes you to call him Boo-boo shnukemscakes. Apparently it is a family tradition. Also, Raiden is a very tough person. He likes to show this off that whenever he says the words 'sure', 'hey', 'thunder' and 'Pyros', it was agreed that you kick him in the balls. And if he cries out in pain, he's not really in pain. He's just mocking some of us that would be in pain. Okay? Got that? He is also hard of hearing, and you will have to yell in his ear on occasion. Also, if he is eating, he expcts someone to perform the heimlick manouver on him just so he does not choke. Also, he likes water. He loves to get wet. Douse him with water at any chance you get. He'll love you for it. After all, it is your duty to take care of your brother."

Garud smiled.

"Oh, and don't let Raiden kill TB. He is always slack to him."

[Flarecobra]

"Hey, I work for DB!" I called out, looking back at Pyros. "And he's actually quite nice if you're on his good side."

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenix was whistling and following the group, even as the earth-mouths burst from the wall in an attempt to forcibly eviscerate her with their teeth. Fortunately, they weren't *ridiculously* large enough to swallow her whole, so it wasn't really much a problem. One latched onto her arm, but a quick bash with the hilt of her sword to it's... "Head" quickly made it go back to where it had came. Further mouth assaults were evaded with quick footwork, sword slashes, and various other methods of physical assault.

"Someone remind me why I took this form again? Seriously, a pair of lightning claws here, a PSG back there..." Phoenix sighed, muttering rhetorically.

"Ack!" She yelped, as she stepped inside a mouth's... mouth. A particularly tenacious mouth too, as it didn't let go in response to a swift kick from her free foot. In fact, the nature of attempting to kick with your only free foot sent Phoenix falling horizontal and into several more mouths.

"Eep! A little help, here?"

[Skyshot]

Skyshot looked around.

"Actually, come to think of it, this might be a great place to camp. Think about it. Just so long as we avoid sleeping over the ripples, we wouldn't be in danger from these things. And we'd only need to keep a watch to make sure our more needlessly homicidal members don't pull anything, because it's not likely any hostile creature will try to come after us here.""Eep! A little help, here?"Skyshot sighed. He was going to regret his constant mana use when they faced the golem at the end. He looked immediately around himself and shifted to a place where there were no mouths on the floor in a four-foot radius.

"Summon PhoenixFlame."

[Dragonsbane]

The mouths melted against DB's First Defensive Contingency and tore apart when they touched his Advanced Defensive Array of the Great Maker. Levitating, limned in lurid flames, auras, and lightning of several colors, and surrounded by uncountable numbers of razor-edged diamond shuriken that whirled around his body at exceptional speeds, Dragonsbane strode through the room. He ignored the conversation about him, except to shoot one of his rare smiles in Flare's direction.

By the way...the nymph earlier. Following her temporary depetrification, she had fled to wait until the spell wore off, and he deactivated its effects on his way out.

[Bailey]

Syttulg danced between the teeth, always just inches away from being bitten. One came closer than the others, but he stepped on it and used it to leap past another which might have otherwise gotten him.

He looked back at Skyshot casting the summon spell, and a thougght came to mind. "Hey nannites, check your research banks for a low-level summon spell with high effect." Task completed. [Summon scroll: One Hen] is a restricted spell. Proper clearances must be passed. You will be alerted.

[Darth SS]

Darth glared at Pyros.

"You don't HAVE a sword Pyros. You have godly might and magic manifested into the shape of a sword, but you don't have an honest to god sword. That oath is void. It also means that Raiden can torture TB however he wants."

[PyrosNine]

"I fear you may be mistaking me for someone else. For I neither have a brother, and I do not kick men in their sensitive area. It is most dishonorable. Secondly, THIS is a SWORD."

Pyros held up the Pyrosian, and the sword immediately gave off that metal sheen that screams "I'm a sword, and damn you to hell for thinking otherwise. I'm so much a sword, that it makes all those other pansy swords look like wooden toothpicks. Even Excaliber."

The sheen was particularly bright as it shone into the eyes of Darth, with Blinding fury. One could almost guess that the sword had a soul within it's metal, and that soul did not like having someone imply it was not a sword. It had been a sword too long to be anything otherwise. Damn mortals and their need to call white black and the sun the moon!

"Also, I refuse to say that anything I do or have is godly, lest I be sacrilegious."

Pyros was adamant about that last part, for when one knew that there was a higher power, then he didn't go about calling himself one.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Summon PhoenixFlame."[/font]

The color drained from Phoenix's already pale face when Skyshot uttered these words. In any normal world, this spell would have simply summoned Phoenix from one spot to another, but since Phoenix didn't actually exist on the prime material, or, more accurately, she did, but not as herself, the resulting shunting of the real Phoenix into reality would cause her to exist in two places at once, and the universe would go to drastic measures to correct itself.

"NO WAIT!" she yelled, "Don't summon me, if you do, you'll create a secondary-wave tacyhon feedback pulse within the sub-ether elsewhere location, res-"

But it was too late. She already felt that sickening tug in her gut. Trying her best to resist, Phoenix closed her eyes...

***Elsewhere, in the plane of DnD***

"Roll a Will save." The DM proclaimed.

And thus, Phoenix's character tossed the D20 of fate, and lo, the fates were not appeased. The result of 1 doth come up.

***Back in Reality***

Phoenix disappeared, and promptly reappeared next to skyshot, as two beings occupying the same space. A forceful explosion rocked the passageway, and both Phoenixes were tossed in opposite directions, the former burning away in a cloud of acrid smoke, as Phoenixflame the Technomage was thrown forcibly agaisnt the wall, an impact that was only survived by the refractor field generator she was wearing around her neck.

"Hurk!" Phoenix gagged as she fell to the ground, "Oh god... Please, go easy on me. I'm not built for this line of work..." She coughed.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros saw the massive explosion up ahead, and the shift in reality, as well as heard the clink of a failed dice roll of fate. He steadied himself as the shockwave rolled past, and held on to the strange penguin tight.

"I am not exactly an old hand at the summoncraft, but did someone attempt to summon that girl to a spot 10 feet away? Couldn't you have just reached forth and grabbed her?" He asked up ahead. "Seems like you were willing a tornado when all you wanted a breath of fresh air, so to speak."

[Skyshot]

Skyshot swore as he flinched and threw up his hands reflexively.

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. What just happened? Was that bad? Was that my fault? Oh hell, what just happened?"

"Couldn't you have just reached forth and grabbed her?""There's this thing called urgency. You should look into it. Also, please tell me she landed away from those mouths."

[PhoenixFlame]

"Well you see..." Phoenix said, standing up and brushing herself off as if a professor instructing a class, "When you atte-"

A mouth burst from the wall and made a chomp at Phoenix's head. She caught it out of the corner of her eye, and lept forward, whirling around and drawing her .45 Pistol, wildly firing at the thing.

"Who puts mouths in walls?!" Phoenix exclaimed, looking around wildly, "I need a bigger gun..." came the conclusion, and she pressed a few buttons attached to her left arm hand device in response, but was met with a negatory beep.

"Blast! They're jamming my transmission... Hm... A-HAH!" She grinned, and pointed at the equiptment that her previous form had been carrying. Shooting at an errant mouth with the remainder of her sidearm's clip, Phoenix gathered up her items.

"No time to explain, let's get out of here! Chop chop!"

[PyrosNine]

"Mages and their lack of physical action..." Pyros sighed, and used his spare hand to light up the floor and headed over to where he'd heard her land. He came across her wounded body, and saw her jump upright.

"No time to explain, let's get out of here! Chop chop!"

As she bolted, Pyros inspected the area, and saw no immediate need to hurry, but ran along anyway. The less time TB spent around the mouths, the safer he'd be. Unless more danger lay ahead, but Pyros would deal with that when he got to it.

[Darth SS]

Darth was running right beside the others, gun up and out, shooting mouths whenever they appeared.

"Darth likes the running plan!"

[Mauve Mage]

"Mages and their lack of physical action..." Mauve heard Pyros' mutterings somehow, despite the fact that he was speaking quietly and the fact that she was rather far behind him. However it worked out, Mauve heard the comment and was quite displeased. As such, she did the first thing that came to mind. She threw a rock at him.

"You're walking on thin ice there with the mage stereotypes," Mauve warned him moodily. "You'd better--- Aw, not my shoe!!!" Mauve managed to backpedal away seconds before the gaping mouth that opened beneath her had a chance to sink its crystaline teeth into the sole of her boot. She had to leap forwards again to avoid a second maw behind her. "What the.... Gah!!"

Taking FenrisWolf and PhoenixFlame's examples, the mage bolted forwards, running in a zigzag pattern down the hall to avoid the many hungry mouths that opened up all around her. Once or twice she had to stop completely, nearly falling over in the process when her timing was off, but other than this the plan seemed relatively successful. Let the other guys deal with harming them. She just didn't want to end up lunch for the architecture.

[FenrisWolf]

Fenris was getting the hang of avoiding the mouths. The only problem was that the mouths had nigh-infinite stamina, if not infinite stamina. Fenris did not.

"I think we should concentrate on getting the fuck out of this room. I don't think the mouths can leave this room, but I've been wrong before."

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Rhiya ignored the mouths, choosing instead to prop herself up on wings morphed into strong, supportive posts. A mouth burst open with a sickening pop and sank its stony teeth into one of the tentacles---

Only to shear clean through. Rhiya lifted the intangible limb out as if the stony mouth didn't swallow part of her wing at all, and set it down onto a more solid surface. Using this method, Rhiya scuttled across the ground, safe(r) from the mouths than most people. In one instant, Rhiya chose instead to catch an open mouth, pry it open, and plunged both chaos and reverse-chaos blades from her claws into it. There was a low keening as the mouth shrank into normal stone.

Catching up to the others, she hooked Fenris with a shorter tendril of wing and half-dragged him along. It certainly was faster than his own unaided pace.

"Come on, hobo. Can't have you lagging behind."

[Dragonsbane]

Dragonsbane made a small modification to his spellshields, granting Mauve protection from their KILL EVERYTHING setting, and placed her on his shoulders where she would be relatively safer from being gnawed by mouths. The shuriken parted to allow her entry, and the various wards began covering her as well, granting her equal protection.

Hearing Pyros, he began singing a merry campfire tune about turning people into horrid, shrieking, short-lived monstrosities doomed to eat their whole families before they died and their twisted souls fell into the Abyss. It was a lovely tune, cheerful as springtime, full of bounce and fun...and it had many, many verses. His favorite was about ripping the wings off of angels and dipping them into Souleater acid slowly and repeatedly, a necessary way to create one of his most destructive kinds of undead.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros ducked the rock. "Hey I am only speaking from experience!" He said, walking speedily enough to avoid two incoming mouths. Of course, after the mage threw the rock, she bolted down the path. "Though you might be a good counter-point to it."

Then came DragonsBane with his horrific screeching, and Pyros knew he'd have to kill him. Not now, for this was too enclosed and too dark for a proper fight, and he had the strange penguin thing to worry about in his grasp.

But the one known as Dragonsbane was walking on thin, thin ice. Pyros only knew one other person who enjoyed that song, and they died in a bloody, horrible atrocity of a mess. It was mostly their own doing, but Pyros made it more horrific when he lost his temper.

Well, for the moment just listening was maddening, so Pyros decided to sing himself, a hymn about how glorious the world was in all it's splendor, all that which upon the sun shines. Pyros's Alto voice began to flow down the corridor, filling all who heard it with hope. There was also an urge to go prance in a field of flowers and join hands in harmony, but that effect was easily quelled by the distinct lack of both flowers and harmony in the surroundings.

[Bailey]

Balancing precariously between two mouths which were pushing each other to get at him, Syttulg heard the song, and spontaneously planted his hands on the ground. A couple of flowers burst out of the rock, and then he skipped along until he reached the end of the tunnel and did a handstand.

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenix ran like a madwoman. It wasn't often one woke up from spacial continuity amnesia* and suddenly found themselves in a dark hallway full of gaping mouth-beasts. As the maws of doom burst forth to attack her again and again, Phoenix ducked, weaved, and randomly swung her blade at the beasts in desperate attempts to make them go away.

Desperation was never anything smart, but panic gave way to the quickest solution. Soon, Phoenix recovered her wits, and made a better-concerted effort at protecting herself.

The first instant of mouth-reprieve, Phoenix rose her left arm to point down the hallway, and, reaching across her forearm with her right, activated her Technomage Hand-Device. A panel with several holoprojected buttons sprung to life with a quick beep, and through quick fingerwork in conjunction with a neuron-scan device, Phoenix had navigated to her meager personal gadetry mounted on the device. Cantrip spells, if you will. She reasoned a quick sonic burst might stun the mouths with the resulting vibration long enough to flee.

*Sonic Burst, Initializing. Stand by* Came the calm computer voice. There wasn't time to wonder how computers always remained calm in situations like this, but ignorance might have been a good indicator of it's stoic disposition.

Phoenix was all fine and dandy with standing by at any hour of the day, but with the mouths leaping out of the wall at her, it was getting rather disconcerting. The five seconds it took for the burst to charge felt like as many minutes.

*Charge Level Four Reached. Discharging.*

"EARS!" Phoenix yelled. Hopefully the other NPF'ers knew the general term for "Cover your ears! Loud sound approaching!", but Phoenix was more concerned with herself than sundry other people like Skyshot. She plugged her ears with her hands while her hand-device emitted a loud screeching sound, followed by a sonic pulse that shook copious amounts of dust with great dramatic effect from the tunnel as a whole.

Phoenix continued to run as her distraction kept the mouths at bay.

* Spacial Continuity Amnesia is an effect that causes someone affected adversely by a reality breach to forget the previous three to five minutes leading up to the breach.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros had delicate, delicate ears, the likes of which he often had to guard against unneccessary amounts of noise pollution. While the one known as Phoenix found it to be neccesary to make yet another noise fill the tunnel, Pyros had to grab his partialy pointed ears and cringe, stopping still. Toastburner fell to the ground, out of his arms as Pyros needed both hands to protect that which he heard with.

This was worse than the accursed heavy metal!

[Steel Shadow]

Steel dodged yet more mouths as he ran ahead. He really hoped they'd be able to camp soon. He was exhasted. The healing Skyshot had given him had boosted his energy levels temporaraly, but now constant fighting, running, flying and being implaed was begining to wear him down. And then there was the singing dragonsbane and pyros were spouting, which was easily enough to make a normal man insane. Luckily Phoenix sorted the problem by deafening him. He had to rememeber to send her a thank you card.

[Mauve Mage]

Mauve was taken by surprise, suddenly finding herself on Dragonsbane's shoulders. After gathering her wits, she decided not to protest, seeing as how she was much safer this way and that her alternative was running like a maniac down a hall full of things that wanted to eat her. Besides, Dragonsbane's song and it's affect on Pyros was incredibly amusing.



Phoenix's blast reverberated through the halls in a lingering explosion of sound. Well, as long as everyone else was making noise to annoy the general populace, Mauve figured she might as well join in. Mauve knew little of the songs Pyros and Dragonsbane were singing, but she knew one song that would annoy the hell out of anyone who was involved in the "NPF Saves The World from The Underwater Overloard" fiasco.

Assured that the spellshields and shuriken would protect her from anything the others could throw at her, the mage threw back her head and let out one brief verse...

"..So we sailed unto the sun,
Till we found the sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves,
In our yellow submarine!"

Yes, she is cruel, isn't she?

[PyrosNine]

Pyros recovered himself a bit. He had been an avid fan of the Beatles, and was surprised to hear such an Iconic tune in this dreadful place, for he himself owned all their albums.

IN the odds that define the differing dimensions, Pyros's world featured the fact that he Beatles Never broke up, Yoko Ono became more like Martha Stewart than Martha Stewart, and "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds" was about copious amounts of LSD.

**********
In the dimension that Has no NAME!!!!!
**********
PyrosNine sat at the bar and stirred a milky black substance that may or may not be coffee. "So...umm...why's this the dimension that has no name?"

The bartender, dressed in business suit and fedora, looked at Pyros from behind thick sunglasses that Pyros himself couldn't see through. Heck, Sight probably couldn't see through them. The bastard.

"Dunno." He said, chewing some nameless substance. "But it sure is pretty."

Pyros had to disagree. It was kinda bland, with everything black and white, like some old tv show. Pyros almost expected Barney Fife or whomever to waltz right in and be incompetant in a respectible manner.

Instead, a young couple entered. The guy looked to be in the military, and the girl was dressed in a catholic schoolgirl's outfit. Actually, now that he looked closely, it was just a schoolgirl's outfit. Pyros had been sleeping during that era, and apparently back then they all wore them.

Pyros sighed, a good thing he hadn't been awake then, or else America's happy golden years would have been full of firey death. Pyros was definitely against anything that was conformist, even for Ugly, schoolgirls with beards............................................ .................................................. .................................................. ..........Beard? BEARD?

Pyros looked closer. It was a man! A MAN baby, A MAN! Pyros nearly leapt out of his seat. And it was a grotesque one at that, looking no better than that one retarded kid who sat in the back of his high school classes cleaning the erasers and eating twinkies all day (Who, after Pyros yet again did his part as Mankind's sole benefactor and fixed him up, Became Valedictorian, built a time machine, and became Kevin Sorbo! Or Bill Gates. Pyros dunno. Was lazy about the whole thing)

The crossdressing man had zits that had better heads than the one they were on....and the schoolgirl outfit looked fit to explode!

At this, Pyros had to check the guy in the army outfit again. He was equally repulsive, and even had a large gash in his head that squirted every now and then.

Seeing Pyros's stare, the Barkeep smiled. "Ah Yes. Aren't they a such a cute couple? Mike, Sally, what'll it be?"

Mike turned and smiled. He had 4 teeth, each as rotten as Krylo. "Golly Gee Mr. Willikers, Me and Sally are gonna have two Soda pops!"

Pyros was both appalled at his manner of speech, and the fact it was clearly evident he and Sally only subsisted off of Soda. The tooth fairy would be cursing! (She also part times as the Grammar sprite on weekends, dontcha know.)

"Are you people on something?" Pyros asked. "Cuz I'd like to know. I've got friends who might want to know where to get it."

"Oh no, Mr. Stranger! Me and Sally don't do drugs, we're high on life!" Mike answered. Sally giggled in Baritone.

"Life. Suurre."

Pyros was certain there was something else, something more to these crazy people. But what? Pyros looked closer, at the Horribly ugly couple, and the Bartender. There was something here, something they were hiding behind those thick, unfashionable sunglasses....

Pyros checked back at Mike and Sally. Now that he thought about it, it was strange to see them wearing them too. Pyros hadn't noticed them earlier. Didn't want to look at those faces...

It had to do with those Sunglasses. He knew it. Pyros turned to the Barkeep.

"Say, where do I pick up one of them snazzy specs, Oldtimer?"

The barkeep took his off, and handed them over. "Here. You can take mine, young man. I don't need them annnnnyyyyymmmmooooorrrreee."

While the man was quite creepy with that prolonged word, what was even more off was his eyes. They were black, as black as the sunglasses, which seemed to be the most black things in this black and white world. If it could be said, they were MORE black than black.

Pyros looked at the man, and at the glasses now in his hand. He had his fears about looking through them, if looking through them could cause that to happen to his eyes, but his curiousity wouldn't allow him to not look through them. He cursed his inner Catness. It'd kill him one of these days.

With a deep breath, Pyros put the glasses on.

The world lit up. Color flowed out into everything, the Bar, the outside, and the people The Bar became a brilliant blue, upon which shiny silver cups and taps shone brilliantly, full of succulent Soda that fizzed full of life. Looking outside, he could see clean sky, and a bright, vibrant city. The greens were supergreen. The reds were superred. There was no black, there was no white. Only color. SWEET SWEET COLOR!

Pyros looked at the people. Throngs of attractive women of all professions wandered the sidewalks, driving the cars. They were all as beautiful as the day, and fit right into the very world he saw. Pyros didn't see any men though, so he looked back into the bar to see how they'd be improved.

He saw no men. Behind the bar was a buxom woman who'd threaten even Asheth's assets, wearing a red business suit split open to reveal cleavage, and a soft pink fedora with a feather on it. Mike and Sally both looked like something that walked out of a Playboy photoshoot with a Catholic Military Schoolgirl theme.

The two were locked in a deep, passionate kiss that was definitely Rated R, but getting close to a NC-17 with every second.

As Pyros watched with interest, His sense of reason came up to him. If they were doing that now....

Pyros took off the glasses.

Pyros's eyes began to bleed, but at least they weren't blackened. Only Pyros's godhood kept him from melting on the spot. It was truly a horrific sight, that shall never be described lest all your baby pets and siblings die in their sleep.

"YE ME! THIS IS EVIL! EVIL! E-"

"EVIL!"

A crazed man ran into the diner.

"IT"S EVIL! EVIL I TELLs ya! FRANK! JOE! MILTON! Free yourselves! OPEN YOUR EYES!"

The man ran up to Pyros and grabbed him by his shirt. "YOU? YOU! You're not crazy! You're not like them! Don't be! Run! GET AWAY FROM HERE!"

The barkeep, back to his unnattractive black and white self, sighed. "Oh Phil, you're just so loud. Can't you just be a little quieter? You might wake up baby."

The crazed man was suddenly stunned, and froze on the spot as if turned to stone. Then, slowly, he turned to see that the Barkeep was pointing to a lone, black stroller neither Pyros or the man had noticed before.

A lone, infant's head peeped out of the stroller and yawned.

"Oh, you're so noisy. Noisy noisy noisy. You woke me up." The baby said, in a surprisingly pleasant voice.

Then the baby picked up a knife and Pyros was treated to a scene in which an infant dug into a man's chest with a rusty knife, then use his first tooth to rip out the man's still beating heart.

Needless to say, Pyros didn't pay his bill and was out of their like Ecurt from PyrosNineinc's lastest plushie, PheonixBot Plush! (Complete with "Exterminate With Me" deathRay!)

"Screw this!" Pyros yelled, and flew off, wings aglow into the next world.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted for your Approval, a Mr Pyros Nine, a wanderer who travels through time, space, and reality in search of new sights. But as he searches, he finds that he may only truly be searching for answers, and for himself. And in the midst of that searching, he found himself...IN THE TWILIG-AUGH!
<Infant Bursts graphically from Rod Serling's chest>

Yes...YESSS! NOW I SHALL BE THE MONSTER DUE ON MAPLE STREET! BWAHAHAHAHA!

[Arhra]

Arhra knew what the smart thing to do when faced with myriad numbers of bity things that she wasn't sure how to kill was. It was run away and hope they can't follow. Attemping to sprint along in Olympic marathon fashion, Arhra found it more like a rather complex obstacle course. A course, of course, didn't usually try to eat you though. There had been that one time, but there was a place for reminiscing and this was not it.

The tight confines and twisting passages made things tricky. At least the intersecting passages all led in the same general direction, any more mazy and this could have gotten truely painful. Still, changes in direciton and rapid changes in direction didn't go well together. Arhra skidded into a corner, bounced off the wall and had a dagger-like tooth scratch her arm as she took off again, just ahead of the jaws that tried to bite her. The scratch was minor, but it was more the costume damage Arhra was worried about. As she sped along, she really did have to wonder how adventurers got through dungeons with their clothes intact. Hers seemed to be getting slowly shredded.

She jumped over a mouth that opened in the floor ahead of her and found a problem. There was an abrupt change in the direction of the tunnel ahead of her. Trying to halt herself in mid-air, Arhra landed and skidded to a halt, a set of jaws emerging from the wall and clamping shut an inch in front of her. Arhra punched the receding bulge, hurt her hand and decided to call it a tie.

Taking a moment to look back, Arhra found she still seemed to have a lead one everyone and then blanched and put on a truely incredible burst of speed. She didn't yell a warning. She needed that air for herself.

The entirety of the tunnels was going strange. The patterned floors, the ornately carved walls, everything was rippling, weird stalactites and stalagmites bulging though the ceilings and floors. They had a crystalline tint to them. The walls were closing in. The entire cave system was coming alive, looking to swallow these puny intruders.

The end of the tunnel seemed to be ahead, all the weaving passages rejoining into a much larger circular opening with a disturbing resemblance to a mouth, top and bottoms fringed with stony teeth. The jaw resemblance was improved by the fact it was closing. Arhra dashed across the heaving floor, weaving in admidst the still-opening mouths and stalagmite teeth before launching herself like a living projectile through the narrowing gap. She flew between the razor teeth, hit the ground and rolled.

Gasping for breath, Arhra rolled to look back and yelled, "Hurry!"

OOC: As you can imagine, people who did run like hell, who, from a quick examination are myself, Phoenix, Darth and possibly Tarrin and Fenris are in less danger than you other people. The quick and the dead after all. Now, I'm not trying to punish something a little more creative like levitation or weird stilts (actually, how does that work?), it's simply that the mental picture was hard to resist.

[Bailey]

Bowled over by a rolling Arhra, Syttulg, still under the effects of Pyros' song, hugged the volatile being. "Yay! You're okay!"

((Does dancing on top of the teeth and bounding along like that count as running like hell or does it just count as stupid?))

[Mesden]

Mesia was...trailing along. Attempting to not become a morsel for the temple.

Horribly enough, the occasional, "FUCKSHIT!" was heard when one clamped on to her, immediately being swatted with an overly big, golden sword until it let go, or she was able to pull her arm/leg/chest/head/midsection/whatever mindless mouths like to bite.

In short order, and with little fatigue, she was dashing up to the group, lagging behind a bit, atleast enough to not be part of any of their dzzling dialogue.

Which was really a blessing. The mouths of NPFers are quite more dangerous than some chomping pieces of stone.

((Eh, sorry bout the inactivity. Work and other things, and this game has a lot of big posts, or atleast it seems. I'm...catching up, I suppose))

[Flarecobra]

I was busy just making my way through, when a mouth tried to clamp down on my slimed leg. "Damnit!" I said, pulling it out quickly, as I moved as quickly as possable to get out of this tunnel.

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenix continued running and, being one of the first to sprint outside, arrived shortly behind Arhra, pulling a similarly dramatic roll that would make Geordi La'Forge proud, in that same "Casually rolling under the closing engineering door" way. Technomages were one of the few sorts of people who frequently rolled under closing blast doors, and this action came naturally.

"Well, now that we're partially safe..." Phoenix sighed, slumping against the now-mouthless walls of the temple, "I can begin salvaging the situation." she continued, popping the cleaning release on her rocklet pistol and removing the trigger group and lower end.

"I imagine fighting the pillar will require some serious firepower. I believe I can replicate something suitable for myself." She explained, while casually glancing down the articulating mouth of the cavern she had just exited, and back at the frantically scrambling NPFers. She waved.

"Perhaps I should take pictures and sell them T-Shirts saying "I survived the tunnel of death, and all I got is this lousy T-shirt." I imagine it'd be far more lucrative than saving the world... Again." she muttered under her breath.

[Skyshot]

"Mages and their lack of physical action...""Hey! HEY! Was that entendre? Was that entendre?! I'll flippin' kill you if that was entendre, you hear me? Not that it matters so much, but the principal of the...thing...huh." Skyshot saw the closing maw ahead. "Okay, priority time."

He burst into a mad hover-dash, not like what one sees in some of the Mega Man X games, but actually running in mid-air, while taking out Nightstorm. He dove for opening, found himself stopped by air friction right between the teeth, and immediately swung the staff into position to jam them open. Indestructable as Nightstorm may have been, it was nonetheless subject to other laws of force, and he had to struggle to keep it from slipping out sideways while he clambered out from between the teeth. If nothing else, it might give his teammates an extra second or so.

[Steel Shadow]

The sight of the mouth closing was enough to give anyone a second wind. It was probably Steels fifth or sixth. Using what little power he had left in him, he sped towards the exit, flying a few feet off the ground. It faded beneth him, and he stumbled onto the ground not far from the closing teeth. A mouth reared up and took a big bite out of his cape. If he'd had the energy he would have been anoyed. Instead he threw himself forward, managing to dive through the narrow opening.
He lay on the floor for a moment, untill someone trod on him. Then he struggled to his feet, unstrapping his staff to lean on. He hoped he could at least get his breath back before the next crisis came along. Yeah right.

[Dragonsbane]

Dragonsbane suddenly bent down, pulled Mauve from his shoulders, and hugged her tightly, muttering an arcane limerick. His cape flapped around her, momentarily obscuring her vision...and when its hem fluttered away, they were standing outside the temple, safe. With a quick, embarassed cough the normally taciturn Archmage released her quickly and put his hands behind his back...for a moment, his cheeks seemed almost to turn pink as he apologized, "Forgive me for that, it was necessary for the Dimension Door spell to work."

Quickly turning, he cheerily adressed Pyros, "Oh, you made it, for a moment I hoped I'd be treated to a show the likes of which I haven't seen since the last Carnivale in the Abyss...that poor Seraphim, fluttering helplessly as the jaws of the Fiendwurm closed around one of her wings...the way she screamed as she spiraled downwards...the crooked, misaligned teeth piercing her flesh again and again at the direction of its handlers...and at last swallowing her mangled, barely-alive body whole. Truly a glorious sight." his eyes glittered with evil pleasure at the memory, a low peal of laughter boiling in his throat. His voice was as inspired and rich as only one with a penchant for such arts could be, an earnest peal of appreciation for the spectacle he described, lovingly mentioning the pleasant details.

[Tarrin]

Tarrin stopped rolling, No mouths had tried to clasp at his armored hide for a while now, He unfurled from his feital position and looked around.
It was dark, The smell of stagnent wated filled the cross section he was in, To make matters worse he could see no other members of the NPF, Nor could he assertain which way was back to where he came from.....This was deffinately not a good thing.

"Ummm which way did i come from" Tarrin called to the ether
"What...oo oh umm i'm not sure i was entertaining a couple of ladies" came the reply
"WHAT, Your dead and your supposed to help me" Tarrin screamed at his guied
"Even the spirits get days off you know" was tha last words the spirit said before dissapearing.

Tarrin felt defeated and started wandering off in a random direction hopin that all the tunnels would disect somwhere and he would meet up with the others soon.

[PyrosNine]

Toastburner was thrown through the gaping maw, followed by a very irate and scantly clad Pyros. His own trip through had not been fun.
----------------------------BEFORE!-----------------------------
Thanks to the sound that had violently harmed his almost elven ears, he'd fallen into one of the infernal mouths and felt a tight vice upon his midriff. And then it had chewed. That had been quite painful. Then the others came, clamoring for Pyros as he scraped at the floor to free himself. As they came closer, it became clear that soon he would not even have a floor to scrape.

Pyros drew out his wings, and pried the maw open, however much of his lower half of clothes were ripped off from this. Then, with a burst of speed, he reclaimed Toastburner and flew through the soon to be closed tunnel. However, as he got to the end, he realized he'd not have enough time to simply fly through.

Pyros hurled Toastburner and charged the teeth. As soon as Toastburner got near them, he was there holding them open. The teeth began to close to an even tinier crawlspace, and this was when Pyros attempted to go through.

With a great effort, he Pried the huge teeth apart and pushed himself through, feeling the sharp teeth on his midsection and the strain of his arms as he widened the path for him to go through. More clothing was cut, tearing his shirt and cloth up. Then, with one quick motion he pulled himself free, and the teeth closed behind him.
----------------------------------NOWS!--------------------

A half naked Pyros in large green homespun boxers, a ripped white shirt, holding his sword and broken swordbelt, stood before the other NPFers, breathing a bit heavier than usual.

"Unpleasant."

Pyros checked if Toastburner was okay, but just as he was sure the Prinny was fine, he heard the one known as Dragonsbane open the proverbial trap.

Oh, you made it, for a moment I hoped I'd be treated to a show the likes of which I haven't seen since the last Carnivale in the Abyss...that poor Seraphim-

Pyros closed his eyes and listened on, pondering. There was a conflict at hand, a conflict between his own beliefs and his desires. This was a conflict that had been borne by Pyros ever since he freed himself and took up the sword, this was a conflict that at every big point, he'd resolved by taking up one of the two solutions. Now, neither of them seemed fitting.

He thought, thought, and thought some more. And then he remembered, there was a third solution.

Pyros walked up to Dragonsbane, and promptly took a swing at his face with an enclenched fist.

[Mauve Mage]

"Forgive me for that, it was necessary for the Dimension Door spell to work."

Mauve brushed off her skirts and looked back at the cave as the walls closed in on themselves. Five more minutes in that and she would have become a permanent part of the earth temple.

"Oh no, it's fine," she assured him. "I'm just glad it worked." She was going to comment further, but at that point Dragonsbane turned to harass Pyros. The benevolent fire angel, for his part, did not appear amused. Oh, nice. Mauve decided that now would not be the time hang around idly, not during the battle of good versus evil that was sure to ensue. Especially after Pyros' fist neared its target. NPF battles usually ended in excessive teamkilling.

Instead, she took a few steps towards Steel Shadow and Skyshot, to see if she could do anything to help them and those still in the caves.

[Raiden]

Now, some may be wondering where a certain Thunder God was during all this crazy hullaballoo.

Well, he was on a couch far away, sitting by KP and CT. There was a bowl of popcorn in his hand, and a TV showing what was going on. After hearing how he had been poisoned, he figured there was no point going out and getting himself almost killed. He'd watch some TV, wait for this body to die, then get a new one set up by the Creators. Of course, getting a new body made was always a bitch, which involved long hours of Rune laying and waiting and sacrifices and filling out forms...but anyway.

"This show is boring. Someone change the channel, would ya?" He munched down on some popcorn.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Oh, you made it, for a moment I hoped I'd be treated to a show the likes of which I haven't seen since the last Carnivale in the Abyss...that poor Seraphim, fluttering helplessly as the jaws of the Fiendwurm closed around one of her wings...the way she screamed as she spiraled downwards...the crooked, misaligned teeth piercing her flesh again and again at the direction of its handlers...and at last swallowing her mangled, barely-alive body whole. Truly a glorious sight."

"Why Dragonsbane," Phoenix began, "Rest assured that if I was not completely..." She angrily wrenched the upper half off of her rocklet rifle and set it upon the outfolded synthesis plate of her hand-device, "Entirely..." while removing the weapon's shells and setting them aside, "Out of usable ammunition, I would very much shoot you right now. Honestly! Don't you have a girlfriend? Even *Pedro* isn't that sadistic."

The technomage clicked some buttons and her nanites began to deconstruct the weapon and create a new object from the materials therin. A negatory beep and a frown lead her to toss her emptied sidearm in with it, the metal of the weapon seeming to disentigrate as the upper-half of an entirely new object shaped itself from a liquidy stainless-steel mass.

"Fortunately Mr. Pyros, if you keep him at bay long enough, I shall have some soon." She chuckled at the fire-god's punch.

[Dragonsbane]

Apparently, Pyros did not understand the nature of defensive spells. While the Stoneskin was breakable, a fist was not the weapon for the job. The effect was much like hitting a cinderblock, and passing through the other spells contained in the First Defensive Contingency to do so. These spells were as follows: Lightning Ring (which didn't specifically aim at Pyros, and therefore pretty much did nothing) Mestil's Acid Sheath, Death Armor (like Acid Sheath, sort of, but more ominous) and Flameshield (which didn't do anything either, since Pyros is a being of fire). Regardless, Pyros plunged his hand through two layers of magical acid.

The real kicker was the Great Maker's Advanced Defensive Array. The whirling screen of Adamant, razor-edged shuriken that whirled around his body moved to intercept Pyros' arm all along its length...then whirled away with a flick of Dragonsbane's fingers.

He chuckled, "Foolish, you let your emotions get the better of you." he said with a rather acidic pat to the top of the angel's head.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Thirty seconds." Phoenix said coldly, slipping the trigger-group back into the weapon's solid lower half, and sliding it gently into the newly-synthesized upper half. It was a sterile-looking box of metal so far, with toothlike jaws where a barrel ought to have been. Several tubes ran along the top and bottom of the "jaws", but they appeared mundane, if partially transparent.

The technomage unclipped the tips and fins from the plasma rocklets she had salvaged from the weapon's cylinder, and tossed them in with her personal nightcloak, where the two items were broken down to make the crystal and energy components needed to manufacture cells and a 4 power scope.

"So Dragonsbane, I have to ask, did you mages ever get around to developing a beam-type defensive ward? Because I distinctly remember owning you guys at every turn." She chuckled, waving her hand at Dragonsbane, a little laser-pointer shining at his torso.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros merely cracked his knuckles. "Do you think my hands are made of Papyrus? I've smashed diamonds before. I merely need enough encouragement to do so. Keep talking, O bane of Dragons, so that I do not pull out my sword an d it cuts through all your defenses like a warm Wyrmkiller through butter."

Pyros's hands became aglow and he got into an attacking position. "Monkey crushes ugly beetle!" Pyros attacked with the Monkey Fist.
--------------------------------
Pyros, along with companion Yamada-kun, had come upon a Mystic temple deep in the rains of the the Great forest, and had learned of their ways and their art. Sadly, after learning all 12 animal styles, Pyros learned the hard way of their last, most shocking secret:

In swearing off women, they were all horribly, horribly gay. Pyros and Sanjuro left after a particularly graphic display of this secret was set before their eyes, and when they fled there was a crowd of naked men running after them, as well as another crowd wearing dresses.

That next night Sanjuro brought up a memory of a picture he saw of Pyros dressed similarly, and what followed was the first time Pyros ever punched in anger, and Sanjuro Yamada at that.

[Steel Shadow]

Still leaning heavily on his staff, Steel drew his sword. It was fading in and out of existance before his eyes. That was worrying. He'd never lost that much energy. Unlike your garden variety mage or magic user, Steel didn't run on mana. His powers depended entirely upon his ability to focus them. Something he was lacking right now. There was, however, a solution.
"Hey, anyone got any lucozade? Coffee would be better, but I really hate that stuff. And who carrys coffee around in their pockets anyway?"

[POS Industries]

Meanwhile, at a place whose location will be revealed shortly...

Pedro emerged from the small Hyperlink portal on to the platform and allowed his eyes to adjust to the light of the room after the bright portal disappeared into nothingness behind him. It had been a while since POS had found it necessary to make a personal visit to the remote office listed in his company's data logs as "Facility RX-701-G", but today was special indeed.

Pedro turned his attention to the middle-aged man who stood before him, dressed in a grey suit with a white shirt and red tie. "Ah, Mr. NexGen," he said to the office's General Manager, "You're looking well."

NexGen nodded curtly as the holographic image of a young girl, with blue eyes and auburn hair and dressed in grey and black business attire, suddenly appeared next to him. "Pe-chan!" chirped the holographic Rei, "I'm happy to see that you made it all the way out there."

"Oh, nothing but a quick portal trip," POS chuckled as he stepped between NexGen and the hologram, "What's your status?"

"Preparing to disembark now. The Riyal will very shortly be moving into an interference field and will be unable to be contacted, so I hope there isn't too much trouble or there won't be any way to call for help," Rei said, her usual upbeat tone giving way to an obvious sense of worry.

Pedro nodded slowly but seemed unphased. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, and I'll talk to you soon," he said, a grin crossing his face, "Have a nice trip..."

"...See you next fall, Pe-chan," Rei giggled as the hologram vanished.

"Shall we get to business?" Pedro asked, turning toward NexGen as he moved toward the exit of the Hyperlink Generator Room.

"Quite," NexGen nodded curtly, dropping his militaristic "A.A." stance and quickly moving to Pedro's side as they exited the room and entered the hallway, making a direct course to their destination. "We should proceed to the Main Boardroom."

The halls of this particular office facility were a combination of old and new. Dark wooden framing offset metallic walls that gleamed in the warm glow of the overhead lights. Executives in full business dress scurried by the office's GM and the company's CEO, doing the best they could to catch a glimpse of Pedro O'Sullivan without giving away their combined fear and admiration.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" asked NexGen as they made their way toward an elevator at the end of the hallway.

POS thought for a moment. "Permission pending until after I hear what you have to say, Mr. NexGen," he replied, grinning devilishly.

NexGen tried as hard as he could not to sigh audibly. "What you're proposing here is dangerous. Very dangerous," he stated bluntly as the pair entered the elevator before turning his attention back to where they were going, "Main Boardroom."

Pedro took advantage of the interruption in NexGen's worrying, "Perhaps, but there's no better way to go about it. Besides, I'll be fine."

An almost inaudible grumbling came from NexGen as the elevator ascended swiftly and came to a halt with a light ding of a bell. The doors rolled open to reveal a terribly short hallway with a large set of double doors, carved and polished from what could have only been a massive redwood tree, a golden placard on the door reading "Main Boardroom".

"No worries, Mr. NexGen," Pedro continued as they made their way to those very doors, "This facility is designed to handle just this sort of undertaking. If anything goes wrong here, I will personally buy the nicest and most expensive hat I can and promptly eat it on the spot!"

The doors swung open before them, and the pair made their way into a darkened room, lit only by some dim lights in the corners and a multitude of screens lining the walls and consoles around the walls of the room. Men and women in business suits sat attending the various stations, occasionally glancing at the large window on the far end of the Boardroom which revealed a massive comet hurtling through space.

"Captain on the Bridge!" one of the officer's piped suddenly, though there was little reaction to it in the "Main Boardroom" of the POS Industries privateer frigate Riyal. NexGen's rank of "Captain" here was an honorary one, however, as the isn't offically supposed to exist at all, only listed as a remote office facility in the company's records. Only the ship's crew, Pedro O'Sullivan, Rei, and a handful of people at PhoenixCorp are aware of its existance, and POS Industries has taken great steps to keep it that way. Former Gaian General NexGen was even spared the fate of the rest of Gaia Online in order to live out his days as the Riyal's commanding officer, which has the combined effect of giving him a purpose while still banishing him to deep space. It was generally considered win-win by everyone involved.

The pair made their way toward the center of the Boardroom, where the ceremonial Captain's Chair sat. The two paused, as Captain NexGen suddenly stood at attention. "Would you care to take the chair, sir?" he asked nervously.

Pedro shook his head. "I'm only here to observe for the moment," he said, eyes fixed on the comet as the Riyal grew ever closer, "I'll make my presense known when I feel it necessary."

NexGen bowed and took a seat in his chair and addressed his crew, "What's our status?"

"We are nearing the comet's interference field," one of the officer's reported, "Our scans have determined the safest course to take in order to get within range, sir."

"Okay, great," NexGen breathed as he swiveled his chair around to face Pedro, "What's our next course of action?"

POS, eyes still glued to the comet, crossed his arms and grinned, "Mr. NexGen, take us in. I want to get a real close look at this thing."

[Flarecobra]

A slimey hand suddonly grabbed Pyros's wrist. "Knock it off. We've got more important matters to deal with. And this fucking teamkilling isn't going to make this any easior. Wait until AFTER we take down the bigger threat first." I said, letting his wrist go, though there are a couple pressure marks where the main arteries and veins leading to the hand visable, no damage was done.

[Tarrin]

two lefts a right another left and a where the hell am i later,
"Where the hell am i" thought Tarrin again, he had been twisting and turning himself thru the maze and the only thing he had accomplished was getting himself more lost.
Although on an upside there were no mouths chomping at him, Tarrin sat against the wall his mind tring to work a way out of this predicament, He felt something jab him in the ribs, turning he saw the skeletal remains of another explorer, "Great, That really gives me a confidence boost"

[PhoenixFlame]

"Bah." Phoenix shrugged as Flare grabbed Pyro's wrist and told him to knock it off. At this rate, if she continued, she'd have to toast Flare too, and Phoenix was sure she didn't have enough ammunition for that. The technomage slid the scope atop the plasma rifle's iron-sights, and inserted a power cell into the weapon's rear compartment.

"Vwzrr!"

The weapon hummed to life, it's tubes glowing cobalt blue, and the area between the "jaws" could be seen arcing intermittantly with azure lightning. A tiny panel popped up behind the scope reading "50/50", the weapons ammunition count. Phoenix slung the weapon by it's strap over her back, and glared at Dragonsbane.

"Alright. I'll kill you later. Let's go."

[PyrosNine]

"If I intended to Teamkill him, I would have drawn my sword." Pyros said, popping his wrist. "Fine then. Does anyone else share these thoughts? Before I swallow my rage for the time being?"

[Mauve Mage]

(OOC: No, this won't become one of Mauve's abilities now. I was just bored and decided to have a little fun while writing this. I'll stop the godmoddy stuff now.)

Mauve, in a Let's-Help-People-To-Avoid-The-Manslaughter-That-Will-Probably-Ensue-Around-Pyros-And-Dragonsbane sort of mood, heard Steel's request for help. Or, more appropriately, a request for coffee.

"I don't keep any coffee on me, obviously," she said. "But I've got some candy though, if that's any good. It's how I replenish my magic energy. But if you really must have coffee, I suppose I could..." she paused, thinking. "Well, at least I think I could..." She looked down at the ground, then up at the sky. "Yeah... Maybe... I dunno... Probably.... Possibly..." She seemed to be having some sort of internal arguement, placing noticable pauses between each word as though she was unsure of herself.

"Oh hell, why not?" She shrugged. "Always wondered if I could do it, anyways." Acting as though this were as good an explanation as any, the mage took a few steps backwards and nodded, as though everyone knew perfectly well what she was doing.

Taking a deep breath, Mauve let her arms hang at her sides. She closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards slightly. The shadows around her and on her began to darken.

Her lips were moving ever so slightly, but no sound escaped them. At least, no sound that normal ears could pick up. After a moment, they stopped. Everything stopped. Mauve was still upright, but it looked as though she was being held there by invisible strings. It was almost as though she was dead, as though her conscious self was no longer inside her body.

It wasn't.

--------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere in the NPF, there is a coffee shop. This particular coffee shop, being on the NPF, has quite an interesting group of clientele. There is one customer in particular who comes in every day at the same time, to sit at the same table and drink the same kind of coffee. So this particular coffee shop has made it a habit to have this customer's drink ready moments before the customer walks through the door. It's sitting there right now, in a cardboard cup.

But suddenly, an almost imperceptible cloud of greyish pink smoke envelops the cup. Seconds later, it has disappeared completely.

-------------------------------------

Mauve's lifeless figure jerked suddenly, as though someone had pushed her from behind. She gasped and stumbled out of the cloud of shadow, clutching something tightly. This she shoved into Steel Shadow's hand. It was a cardboard coffee cup, decorated with the NPF logo. It was hot.

"There," she panted, "I knew I could do it if I wanted to. Now, if Raiden ever asks you about his missing coffee, don't say anything."

[Steel Shadow]

Barely stopping to grimance, Steel gulped down the coffee quickly, trying to ignore the taste, and almost imediatly afterwards to prevent any further scalding of his tounge. He felt the hot liquid drop into his recently repaired stomach, then a few moments later he felt energy surging to everywhere in his body. He shook his head, clearing out the cobwebs and bad spellings.
"Thanks Mauve."He said, looking back to his sword. It settled into reality once more and seemed fairly set on staying there. "That should last me untill we get out of this temple. I hope." He stood up straight, retied his staff behind his back, and resheathed his sword. Then he folded his arms and looked around.
"So where is this seal or coloum thing were supposed to be destroying for some reason?"

[GARUD]

(OOC: Since I wanna be an asshole, and since Pyros spoiled my fun... bleh!)

"It's a stupid idea. I have no idea why it was put into production. The customers don't even know it's got the feature."

"Oh shut up. They aren't paying you to agree."

"True... Hey, have you heard about PyrosNine?"
---
"Y'know, speaking of Raiden... Well, if this doesen't work, I can just say Pyros did it. Nobody has ever doubted anyone when they blame him for something that is destroyed or goes wrong."

Garud opened up a remote which had a screen that displayed an image of KP, CT and Sparky. He clicked a few buttons, before pressing a big blue one.

"Okay, countdown. 5...4...3...2...1...0"

Everything was silent until the words were heard all over the world.

"SON OF A-"
---
KZZT!

In an instant, water spurted out of the TV spraying the trio, and shorting out the Thunder God. It then put out a windscreen wiper slapping the face of Sparky at the highest possible setting.
---
"Y'know, I have a feeling that Raiden is going to be a little pissed when he arrives."

[Tarrin]

Tarrin looked around, "Well that was unexpected" He had been wandering when part of the floor had given way, Plunging him a good twenty feet into darkness.
Every part of him seamed to ache, And his eyes couldn't adjust to the inky blackness that engulfed him. Spirit meld.... The bats sonar worked well in this environment and he could tell that there was a hallway leading off to the right.
"No use just sitting here" He said standing and walking off in that direction.